Cave Painting

A Boy and His Cat-Dragon

Our latest history lesson was nomadic prehistory, so we studied some cave art and did a cave painting, of course.

This is, “A boy and his cat-dragon“, wax medium (ha! crayon!) and acrylic on crumpled packing material. He drew the figures with black crayon, dotted yellow and red ochre acrylic paint on with a wad of damp paper towel, and Mom went over his black lines on a light box to make them darker (and to make them show up where they were painted over) once the paint was dry.

He says it’s Toothless and Hiccup, but as cave men. That’s why the sabre-tooth doesn’t have any teeth.

We used red and yellow ochre because they were the most common paint colors of the ancient world. You could also add lamp black and unbleached titanium. If you just want the fun and you’re not an ancient pigment nerd like me, just use black, white, yellow or beige and orange-red or reddish brown. Or for the Crayola fingerpaint version: black, white, red and yellow.